July | 2024 | Good to be Home

Well I am in New Hampshire in our vacation cabin alone for a couple days. How did this happen, you wonder?

Since I had driven here first (with Sarah) to prepare for the rest of the family to arrive it worked out nicely for me to remain behind for a few days because 1. I had my car and 2. My kids are old enough to be alone & 3. baby Lucy my angelic granddaughter was able to find someone else to watch her today. So Rich left with everyone and I was very grateful to have three free days, to spend time by myself. As much as I love and adore my family and honestly each one of them is someone I would always choose over solitude, as a quiet introvert I still believe that when an opportunity to be alone presents itself it’s wise for me to take the gift. (I admit it does feel odd for me at first). Yesterday I stayed here at the cabin, but this morning I thought I would drive to visit our old friends, Karl and Edna. This is an older couple who used to be our neighbors in Connecticut, they moved away a few years ago to spend winters in Georgia and summers in NH. I didn’t have their phone number but I remembered the street they lived on so I put on a sun dress and left Sammie (who is still with me and who lost part of her tail, see previous blog post for the story) to make the sunny forty five minute journey. New Hampshire is a beautiful state to drive in, what with the hills and valleys , picturesque homes, gardens, lakes, forest, and more.

They were home!! Of course the Mr. was in his garden and the Mrs. was cleaning. They welcomed me warmly, as I knew they would. These delightful friends are in their 80s and such a wonderful couple to know and admire. We sat and visited in their beautiful living room and when I left I was given two crispy garden cucumbers and a container of soft zucchini bars (frosted) and a mind full of inspiration. I hope Rich and I, when we turn 80, are just as delightful and kind and friendly as they are. I was so glad I went, I was a little nervous about it but my bravery won the day.

I then went to Bristol, NH to a coffee shop called The Purple Coffee Lounge, and I can highly recommend the pesto, cream cheese and tomato bagel sandwich 100%. There is also a cute village thrift shop nearby where I bought some books for 10 cent each- (note to LeaAnn, I bought an Anne Lamott book called -All New People- and thought of you, although this one is a novel. I’ll let you know how it is)

I also scored some Redwall paperbacks for the kids. (highly recommend)

Continuing on my way, my second shopping stop was at Moulton Farm where I bought food for myself for the next two days.

nutritious foods, and also molasses cookies and a peach muffin

*********

I have decided to start doing my “10,000” steps per day again. I had gotten tired of walking and was really proud of myself for quitting but I also began eating whatever I wanted.

I’m still going to do the eating plan but will walk briskly now, as well. I had enough “rest” (months, indeed, entire seasons).

And thus it was, that on today’s second walk, I found

wild blueberries

of which I have a very

very

long history, as I used to pick quantities of them every summer for long periods of time, as a child and teenager.

I picked often enough that the whole experience is genetically coded in my brain now I’m certain of it. It feels like home to pick them. Only the wild ones though.

On today’s walk I found a nice airy five foot high blueberry bush and could not pass them by even though I have no one to share them with and believe it or not blueberries are really not in my top ten fruits to eat, I still HAD to pick them because I wholeheartedly believe that the bush ENJOYS being picked (the birds pick them too), yielding a higher amount of berries for the next year. Plants know when they are Useful and they produce accordingly.

As I picked for that small amount of time (7-9 minutes), I listened to music on my earbuds, felt perfectly content, felt a little bit like I was trespassing as there was a house close by just beyond the bush but then I reminded myself “it’s a ditch” and, also felt, not like a bird, but like a deer. The moment I turned back and jumped up on the road again is when I felt most like the deer, my feet even made the same rustling noice in the bushes and grasses as I jumped.

I had stopped picking when my hand was too full for any more.

It could have been any number of things in my hand; a baby bird, an insect, a butterfly wing, rocks, anything!

As I came out of the woods (from the trail) I crossed the road and deliberately took a photo of this sign as I found it very charming. There is a great deal of honking going on today. God bless Gail, she’s 90!! (I don’t know her but I had also honked earlier).

could have been anything, but it was blueberries, and a buttercup for decoration and whimsy

I found out today that my left hand holds a full quarter of a cup. I hadn’t realized that before today.

If today was a song it would sound like a visit with old friends, driving through New Hampshire, a purple coffee shop, smiles from strangers, hot sunshine and humidity, the sound of birds and lapping lake water, a true crime podcast, laundry machines humming and spinning downstairs, Birkenstocks, a navy blue sundress, iced coffee, dirt roads, the hum of fans in every window, in my voice, my song, of my hand, of my memories, of my blueberries.

You are loved.

It’s hot and humid and sticky here in New Hampshire. The cabin has every fan running, everyone is slow and sleepy. Rich and I are here for a couple weeks with the three youngest kids. I also brought my best friend cat Sammie. She’s driven here with me before, and we get such joy watching her be the only cat in the family away from her three cat-mates back home in Connecticut. She stretches out in sunbeams, perfectly relaxed, goes inside and outside and finds many favorite napping locations and plays with her several catnip toys. She rubs up against our legs and purrs constantly. We all love having her here.

Sammie’s peaceful New Hampshire life ended when the rest of the family, plus the Winter the dog, belonging to Ethan and Sierra, arrived on the 3rd. No matter if she’s home or at the New Hampshire cabin, Sam is always fearful and hostile of Winter. She kept to herself on the windowsill however, until that evening when Seth decided to pick her up and carry her across the kitchen. The rest of us were in the living room visiting and talking, but when Winter saw what Seth was doing she playfully ran over to him, hopping up and down trying to tease Sammie. Sam’s tail was unfortunately just within reach and when Winter snapped at it, she went crazy in Seth’s arms and flew away across the room, all of us adding to the chaos with our own sounds of alarm. Yelling at Seth, grabbing Lucy off the floor, trying to calm Winter down. Sammie ran right at me and then away, leaving two small but deep scratches on my legs. It was a chaotic moment to say the least, and then Sarah said “What is that on the floor??” I looked out into the kitchen and saw a little pile of black. “It’s Sammie’s fur!” Said Seth, and as Sam raced upstairs I saw that the last fourth of her tail was now just a thin pink blood covered bone. The fur was pulled off, along with all the skin. I was so upset. We passed the night with Sam in our room dripping blood from her tail as she restlessly went from bed to floor to table to windowsill and everywhere else, it was very disturbing. Rich and I spent time that next morning of the 4th wiping up cat blood with Clorox wipes because who can bandage and staunch the flow of blood from the end of a cat’s tail? I began calling it her “red paintbrush” but honestly my nerves were on edge what with the house full of family and now an injured best friend cat to feel sorry for.

And so it was that on the Fourth of July, Sierra and I took Sam to get a fourth of her tail taken off at an emergency vet in Meredith. Our appointment was at 8pm and the crowds gathering for fireworks were immense. We got Sam settled at her appointment, signed the papers, and passed the time by going to get ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s along with one hundred other people……

Sam made it through just fine, and we brought her back home on Serra’s lap in her cardboard box of a cat carrier, watching the fireworks out the windows, and sitting in traffic for lengths of time.

She’ll spend the rest of her life with a shortened tail, but she’s still so pretty in my eyes.